A Major Network Series Has Its Lowest-Rated Premiere Ever

It continues to be a rough period for premieres on the broadcast networks, with the latest series to suffer its lowest season premiere of all time being ABC’s “The Bachelorette,” based on Nielsen overnights for the key 18-49 demo.

TVbytheNumbers.com reports that the two-hour reality show debuted Monday to a 1.9 average rating in 18-49, losing 27% from the premiere a year ago. Last time around, “Bachelorette” led out from “Dancing with the Stars,” while the latest installment opened the network’s prime-time lineup. It was followed by a special episode of ABC’s “20/20,” which managed only a 1.3.

“Bachelorette” went head-to-head with the top show of the night, NBC’s two-hour “The Voice,” which came through with a 3.1 average in the 18-49 demo, slipping 11% from a week ago. With “Revolution’s” 1.9, matching last week’s number, NBC coasted to an easy win for the night, both in the demo and in total viewers.

CBS aired all repeats, while Fox’s only fresh show was the new comedy “The Goodwin Games,” which matched last week’s premiere with a 0.6 in adults 18-49.

The numbers for prime time overall show NBC well ahead with a 2.7 in the 18-49 demo, followed by ABC (1.7), Univision (1.5), CBS (1.1) and Fox (0.6). NBC averaged 9.4 million total viewers to lead ABC (5.8 million), CBS (4.4 million), Univision (3.4 million) and Fox (1.4 million).